Saturday, September 30, 2006

For the most part, I am going to keep silent about my opinions on what has gone on before and what is going on now in the NARBC. The reasons for my choice of silence are varied, for one thing, I feel we need time for the rhetoric and outright lies on the part of some to fade.

I want to say, however, that Amy had my vote, and my full support. I wish she had not stepped down, but I understand why she did. I also believe her recent post in her blog on all of this to be 100% accurate. I know Judy does not agree with all of it, but fortunately, Judy is one of those rare people who can disagree with you and be an adult about it. Which is why I am glad she is replacing Amy as President. She is strong, and she will do what is right for the Club. And I doubt the usual characters will mess with her much, but I won't go into that.

I also want to say that when certain characters come up for re-election, I will come out with stored emails and both barrels blazing! As I said in a recent email, people have a right to know the character of those who are running for office, and thanks to mass emails and forwarded emails, I have lots and lots of character references, in their own words, to work with.

Thursday, September 28, 2006

I would like to take a moment and introduce myself to all of you. My name is Judy Riddle and up until this morning was a District Director for the NARBC. 2 weeks ago, Amy Spang (then NARBC President) appointed me as NARBC Vice President. The BOD approved this assignment and it became 'official'. With Amy's resignation, I have moved into her position of President.

Amy and I worked/spoke together right from the beginning of her Presidency. I did not always agree with her (and yes, she knew that!) or her ideas, but we were adult enough to discuss things in a rational way. When she had questions, she knew I was there to help and support her in any way I could. When I offered help, she was quite gracious in listening to my thoughts.

I have been involved with this club for the last 15 plus years. Believe me, I know what can and does go on in it. I am not saying I agree with a lot of it... and I am not saying Amy was wrong in the changes she tried to get thru. What I am saying is this. If you do not like the way things are being done... CHANGE THEM! Start at the bottom and work your way up. Run for an Office... Volunteer for a committee.... The only way the BOD is going to change is if NEW FACES show up and become involved!

I welcome your comments...ideas... thoughts.... anything any of you have to offer. The one thing I will not tolerate is slamming the former President or her Committee people. Let's put this in the past and move forward promoting our beautiful animals.

Sunday, September 17, 2006

Last week, a doe I had sold and has come back home, JG's Antje, gave birth to 9 babies, 8 of them live. This doe was bred to a pure German buck with excellent density along his back. I'm anxious to see how they develop. I already have a favorite, one really big, fat baby, hopefully a buck.

Today I took Mopsie to the Washington, PA show, she did well, but didn't earn a leg. I wasn't planning on showing her at all, but she did not deliver a litter and I took her because Phill and Judy Osborn came up for the show, and I wanted to give them an opportunity for a leg. They got it! They earned BOB and BOS Giant Angora.

Tom and Charlotte Schweikart also attended, as did Angel and Autumn Filby. Charlotte took BOB and BOS French Angora, and Angel got BOB and BOS English Angora.

Meanwhile, I have located a grand-daughter of Dumpling, and will be buying her. At this point, I think I will be closing my Giant breeding program to outside lines. Including this little doe, I will have bloodlines from Linda Kolassa, the Baileys, the Osborns, and Louise Walsh. Blended with these will be old German, 2002 import, and newer German bloodlines. And also Pewter, of course. My plan is to begin with a wide genetic base of quality animals, and line breed from there to develop my own line.

Wednesday, September 13, 2006

Does the statement, "We've always done it that way" ring any bells? The US standard railroad gauge (distance between the rails) is 4 feet, 8.5 Inches. That's an exceedingly odd number. Why was that gauge used? Because that's the way they built them in England, and English expatriates built the US Railroads.

Why did the English build them like that? Because the first rail lines were built by the same people who built the pre-railroad tramways, and that's the gauge they used. Why did "they" use that gauge then? Because the people who built the tramways used the same jigs and tools that they used for building wagons, which used that wheel spacing. Okay! Why did the wagons have that particular odd wheel spacing? Well, if they tried to use any other spacing, the wagon wheels would break on some of the old, long distance roads in England, because that's the spacing of the wheel ruts. So who built those old rutted roads? Imperial Rome built the first long distance roads in Europe (and England) for their legions. The roads have been used ever since. And the ruts in the roads? Roman war chariots formed the initial ruts, which everyone else had to match for fear of destroying their wagon wheels. Since the chariots were made for Imperial Rome, they were all alike in the matter of wheel spacing. The United States standard railroad gauge of 4 feet, 8.5 inches is derived from the original specifications for an Imperial Roman war chariot. And bureaucracies live forever. So the next time you are handed a specification and wonder what horse's ass came up with it, you may be exactly right, because the Imperial Roman army chariots were made just wide enough to accommodate the back ends of two war horses. Now the twist to the story When you see a Space Shuttle sitting on its launch pad, there are two big booster rockets attached to the sides of the main fuel tank. These are solid rocket boosters, or SRBs. The SRBs are made by Thiokol at their factory at Utah. The engineers who designed the SRBs would have preferred to make them a bit fatter, but the SRBs had to be shipped by train from the factory to the launch site.

The railroad line from the factory happens to run through a tunnel in the mountains. The SRBs had to fit through that tunnel. The tunnel is slightly wider than the railroad track, and the railroad track, as you now know, is about as wide as two horses' behinds. So, a major Space Shuttle design feature of what is arguably the world's most advanced transportation system was determined over two thousand years ago by the width of a horse's a**.

Friday, September 08, 2006

Thanks to the great work of Ray Cunio and Doreen Hannes, and many others in the Liberty Ark Coalition, Senator Jim Talent and Congresswoman Jo Ann Emerson, both from Missouri, introduced companion bills yesterday which will say the "...Secretary [USDA] shall not implement or carry out, and no Federal funds shall be used to implement or carry out, a National Identification System, or similar requirement, that mandates the participation of livestock owners."This is a great step forward, but it is just a beginning. Before the bills were introduced, we submitted to the Senator and Congresswoman a list of additional issues that should be addressed in the bill. We were assured that our input will be requested as the bills move to hearings, and through the process.The bills have not yet been assigned a number. They will be posted on the Liberty Ark website as soon as they are available.This is a great example of what we can do when we all work together. We were able to tell the Congressmen that we represented 72 organizations, and more than 1100 members in all 50 states. This is impressive, in view of the fact that we organized only a few months ago. But we need many more organizations, and many, many more individuals to sign up in support of this effort to eliminate the National Animal Identification System( NAIS).Please make an effort to get your friends and neighbors to visit the website (http://libertyark.net ) and sign the pledge. We’re going to need thousands of people if we are going to be successful in this battle. The folks who are pushing this plan have tons of money and powerful, paid lobbyists.Get a supply of the new brochure, and a CD so you can provide accurate information to all the people you know. We have reached a new stage in this fight, and we need to expand the army.

Sunday, September 03, 2006

I just love little birds, you know the kind - as in, "a little bird told me...". I heard from a couple of my little birds this weekend. Their tips involved gossip. So I thought I'd post a couple tips of my own concerning gossip.

1. If someone tells you something derogatory about someone else, try to determine if it is true. Ask the person spreading the rumor what their proof is. If they can't provide it, well, you know what their testimony is worth.

2. One easy way to determine for yourself if something is true, is to "Google" it. For instance, someone once told me that terrible things were circulating around the Internet about someone. So I went to http://www.google.com and typed this person's name in quotes in the Google Search Bar and hit Enter. Four entries, none of which backed up the claim. Try it yourself.

3. If you get something via email that is questionable, when answering it (If you choose to at all), type the email addy of someone you trust in the "bcc" address bar. "Bcc" stands for "Blind carbon copy". It sends a copy of your email to someone without letting the other person know. I often do this if I have reason to believe that someone is going to quote me out of context or otherwise misrepresent something I've said.